Greater Noida, India

Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) has endured a tough start on their adventure on a new adapted home ground in India’s Greater Noida. With a historic one-off Test, which was set to take place at the Shaheed Vijay Singh Pathik Sports Complex against New Zealand from Monday (Sep 9), the match has been nothing but a huge mess for the organisers after rain and poor faculties saw the opening day of the contest get washed out. While rain has played spoilsport, it is the poor drainage, players' hospitality and media facilities that have hit the headlines.

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Poor facilities highlight Afghanistan vs New Zealand contest

At the time of writing on Day 2 of the match, the toss was yet to take place while media personnel raised complaints about poor facilities which included lack of water and improper food. On the other hand, there were no separate washrooms for female officials, highlighting the mismanagement.

However, the biggest issue that caught the eye of the ACB officials was the poor drainage facility. Despite no rain on Day 1, it was the poor subpar drainage facility that restricted play to start on Day 1. Overnight rain had seen the stadium affected by poor outfield, but the lack of infrastructure came as a big embarrassment for the ACB officials.

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"This is a huge mess, we are never coming back here. The players are also unhappy with the facilities here," an ACB official said.

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"We had spoken with the concerned people well in advance and were assured by the stadium guys that everything will be in order (pertaining to the media facilities)," he added.

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While the match is not part of the World Test Championship (WTC) cycle, it is still an International Cricket Council (ICC) affiliated contest, meaning it will impact the player and team ratings.

While there remains no alternative to switch the venue or postpone the match, the ACB will be determined to not repeat such a scenario in the future. Currently, the nearest cricket ground available is Delhi Arun Jaitley Stadium but is unlikely to be available due to its preparations for the upcoming Bangladesh tour. The same goes for Kanpur’s Green Park which is around 400km away from Greater Noida as that venue too is engaged for India’s series against Bangladesh.